By
Alec Clayton
 |
| Costume design by Mishka Navarre, photo courtesy University of Puget Sound |
The
Drama Department at University of Puget Sound is offering South Sound audiences
an opportunity to see a great classic play that is Seldom seen in our area, The Sea Gull, by
Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov.
Written in 1895, The Sea Gull is a comedy that was
considered revolutionary when first produced because up until then plays were
expected to be predictable and melodramatic, not a complex comedic love story
about a playwright who shoots a sea gull and presents it as a love token to a
young woman, saying he will soon shoot himself.
Hanna R Brumley, dramaturg for this production,
says, “The thematic and emotional reach of
the play is broad and so there's a wide range of reasons why people like it,
even within our crew, but some consistent attractions are: the complexity
of the characters and relationships, the play is rich with different kinds of
love and loss, the urgency of passing time and the need to live and love fully;
it is an ensemble piece that requires a great deal of teamwork and trust, the
comedy is based in sincerity and truth.”
The
cast and crew for this production are all UPS students. Lead actors include Mattea
Prison, who plays the role of Arkadina, Gabe Vergez as Trigorin, Brynn
Allen as Nina, and Keegan Kyle playing the part of Treplev.
The scenic designer is Kurt Walls; lighting
design is by Richard Moore; and the costume designer is Mishka Navarre.
The production is directed by Geoff Proehl.
Proehl teaches, dramaturgs, and directs at
UPS. He is the author of the study of American family drama, Coming Home
Again: American Family Drama and The Figure of The Prodigal. Last year
Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas awarded him the Lessing Award
for Lifetime Achievement.
Explaining why he chose The Sea Gull, Proehl referred to his love for Wyoming and Montana.
“The landscape opens the heart, soul, body, mind. You can see a thunderstorm
coming toward you from fifty miles down the road, black clouds, lightning, then
the thunder and the rain. There are just a few plays that are for me, as big as
that. The Sea Gull with its stories of desperate love and longing and
laughter is one of them. Few plays remind us more ferociously that time is
passing and why that matters. No play reminds us with more honesty and
compassion that life is short, terrible and wonderful.”
Proehl says, “I first directed this play at
Puget Sound about twenty years ago with a wonderful cast and crew. It made a
deep impression on all of us. Few plays speak more honestly and more
compassionately about the shortness of life and the challenges of living with
an open heart.”
The Sea Gull, 7:30 p.m. Oct. 27-28, Nov. 2-4
and 2 p.m. Nov. 4, Norton Clapp Theatre in Jones
Hall, University of Puget Sound, tickets $11, $7 student, staff,
military, seniors (55-plus, 1500 North Warner in
Tacoma, 253.879.3100.
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